In a quest to become an established England striker, West Ham's Carlton Cole has been to see Didier Drogba, his former Chelsea team-mate, and Aston Villa's Norway international John Carew. "I talk to Didier a lot and he feels that I can progress even further than I have and I am happy that he thinks of me highly," said Cole.

"I talk to John Carew as he scores goals wherever he goes. Hopefully I can do that one day."

Cole has also been studying tapes of Bolton's Kevin Davies and Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a bid to build on his long-awaited breakthrough season.

"I've been speaking to Drogba and watching Kevin Davies as he is one of the greatest in the Premier League at holding up the ball," Cole added on club the Hammers official web site.

"I also watch Ibrahimovic and other similar players to me, big powerful players who can cause defenders problems.

"This season I have worked on my game and I looked at DVDs and watched other players play, watching what they do and taking things from their play to put into mine and trying to implement it on the training pitch and do it on the pitch on a Saturday, so it has been a lot of hard work away from the field."